The human gastrointestinal (GI) tract refers to the organs found from the mouth to the anus. The small bowel is a part of the GI tract, connecting the stomach with the large intestine. The length of the small intestine in an adult is variable, and measures 7 meters in average. The main function of the small bowel is the digestion and absorption of nutrients and minerals found in the food. In order to do so, the small intestine pushes the food through by the means of a physiological mechanism called intestinal motility.
The colon is a subsequent part of the digestive system in most vertebrates. In the colon, water, sodium and some fat soluble vitamins are absorbed. This process occurs due to contractions of the colon which mix the contents of the large intestine back and forth but do not move them forward. A second type of motility that occurs in the large intestine is the high amplitude propagating contraction, which are extremely strong contractions that move the contents of the large intestine forward.
Intestinal motility can be divided into two categories: peristalsis, e.g. synchronized movement of the intestinal wall responsible for moving the food in one direction; and independent contractions, e.g. unsynchronized movement of the intestinal wall where the muscles squeeze substantially independently of each other, which may have the effect of mixing the contents but not moving them forward or backward.
In-vivo imaging methods, such as performed by an in-vivo imaging system including a swallowable capsule, may be used to image body lumens within a patient. The imaging system may capture and transmit, for example, images of the GI tract to an external recording device, while the capsule passes through the GI lumen. The capsule may capture images in variable frame rates of, for example, 1-40 frames per second. Large numbers of images, for example 100,000 to 300,000 images, may be collected for viewing during the imaging procedure, which may be performed in a duration of one to eight hours, and may be viewed and/or processed in real time. The images may be combined in sequence, and an image stream or movie may be presented to a user.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,215,338 to Horn et al., incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, discloses a system and a method for creating a fixed summarized graphical presentation of a data stream captured in-vivo. The graphical presentation may be in the form of a color bar, which may be calculated based on average image pixel values of one or more image frames. However, differentiation between adjacent images may not be detectable in the fixed summarized presentation disclosed by Horn et al., and different characteristics, portions or segments (e.g. lumen hole, tissue, intestinal content) of a single image may not be discernible when a user examines the fixed summarized presentation. Furthermore, the disclosed fixed summarized graphical presentation is not detailed, and does not provide information of contractile activity or motility events. It may therefore be useful to provide a method and system for displaying summarized information of image characteristics in a discernible manner.
Various image properties, intestinal events, contractile activity or motility may be determined using in-vivo image sequences, as disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,944,316 and/or 7,200,253 to Glukhovsky et al., and in U.S. Pat. No. 7,724,928 to Glukhovsky et al., each of which is being incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Presentation of motility data in a graphical plot form is disclosed, e.g. in FIG. 3 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,944,316. Due to the large number of images in the stream, such presentation (for the complete image stream) may be difficult to display in a single bar or graph on the monitor. The area required on the screen to present all the available motility data may be too large or too long to fit into a screen display, which may also include, for example, one or more image stream windows and additional medical information provided to the user. It may therefore be required to provide a new display method, which uses an available amount of screen space and is combined with the Graphical User Interface display.